Scarab brings grief and now anger
2005-03-04
A PAARL woman who believes that she has been cursed by a trinket from the tomb of King Tutankhamen, has been angered by press reports about her request that the scarab be returned to Egypt.
The widow, who spoke on condition of anonimity, believes that the scarab has brought tragedy to her family.
She wrote to the Egyptian authorities in 2004, informing them that she would like to return the mystical stone ornament to them, to break the Pharaoh's curse.
"I have still not received a reply - instead someone sent the information to the newspapers."
In her letter the woman related how she was given the scarab by a relative, with some other trinkets, in the 1960's.
The relative said the ornament had been won by her husband, a ship's captain, at a gambling table in Cairo in the 1920's.
"She told me that one of the men at the table was an archaeologist involved with the excavation of the tomb of King Tut. WheN he lost the game, he relinquished the scarab as payment of the debt."
When her husband returned to South Africa, he gave the ornament to his small daughter.
He then sailed for Europe, but his ship sank off en route, and he drowned. His daughter died of leukemia when she was 21.
"The captain's wife, a cousin of my mother-in-law, gave me this 'trinket' as part of her deceased daugHTer's 'treasure chest' - a small box with various keepsakes, to pass onto my children, who were then only two and three years old respectively.
"She definitely did not suspect that there was a 'curse' connected to it, or she would not have given it to me!
"About 30 years ago my son took the scarab to school for a talk. A teacher told me that it was of historical value.
"I went to the Cultural History Museum in Cape Town to have it authenticated.
"I fetched it after a while, and was told that the scarab was Carnelian, from a dynasty which dates back to about 2000 BC, usually given to a son at birth as good luck charm.
"I thought it would be nice to wear as a ring, and had it set in gold by a jeweller.
"I wore it periodically, but 18 years after receiving the gift, my own daughter (21) died in a road accident and I wore it no more.
"The fact that she had also died at 21 as the previous owner's daughter had, scared me.
"And when my husband died suddenly, the day after I had tried to sell it to a dealer in antiquities, I locked it away.
"After I lost my second daughter, I just wanted to rid myself of it, and struck on the idea of writing to the Egyptian Cultural Ministry to aid me in getting it back to Egypt.
"I no longer have it in my possession. I have stored it in the safety vault of a bank where it will remain until the Egyptian authorities contact me.
"I wrote in strictest confidence. It was certainly not my intention to broadcast information about the so-called curse."
According to Cape Town Egyptologist Keith Grenville, the scarab would be impossible to date or authenticate if there were no inscription on it.
Says Zahi Hawass, chief of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities, "There was a lot of security when Tut's tomb was opened in 1922. I'm sure it's a fake."
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